{
 "id": "mary-weston-fordham/dedicated-to-the-right-revd-d-a-payne",
 "title": "Dedicated to the Right Rev’d D. A. Payne",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Mary Weston Fordham",
 "poet_slug": "mary-weston-fordham",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Magnolia Leaves",
 "book_slug": "magnolia-leaves",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 21,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1897,
  "venue": "Magnolia Leaves (1897)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/magnolialeavespo00ford"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/mary-weston-fordham_magnolia-leaves",
  "file": "magnolia-leaves.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/mary-weston-fordham-magnolia-leaves-full-text-1897-preface-by-booker-t-washington",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006775637"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh! surely ’tis a theme sublime",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That stirs my soul to-day;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Awake then, muse nor slumber more,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till sung the wondrous lay.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My song shall be of one, whose youth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And strength were freely given",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To elevate, instruct, and lead",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Benighted souls to heaven.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "My song shall be of him, whose hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A mother’s taste did mould;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose precepts noble were to her",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As apples of pure gold.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll tell of one whose virtues rare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In modesty enshrined;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who bears a lasting laurel wreath",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "About his brow entwined.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Who in the days that tried men’s souls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Did ne’er from duty quail,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But wrought on ensign, lifted high,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s no such word as fail!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Mem’ries so sweet are hov’ring round,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That I, with Psalmist, say",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“O! had I wings like turtle dove,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Quickly I’d fly away!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Away, away beyond the hills",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where blooms the tree of life,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where limpid streams whose silent flow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ne’er stir the sea of strife.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh! Bishop, Pastor, Friend, may’st thou",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To green old age be spared;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then, like a fully ripened ear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Go to thy rich reward.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}